Biology

Hoothoot's feet

Hoothoot is a round, owl-like bird with two stubby wings and a short, fan-shaped tail. It has large red eyes with beady pupils. Its feathers are mostly brown with a beige underbelly. Hoothoot has a large black, mask-like crest, which encircles both eyes and covers the face. The crest has two protrusions at the top resembling the hands of a clock. The parts of the crest below each eye have notches resembling the teeth of a clockwork gear. Hoothoot has a small, hooked beak and two feet with five digits. Although it will typically only stand on one foot at a time, it alternates between the two at speeds too difficult to track with the naked eye.

Inside Hoothoot's body lies a special organ that senses Earth's rotation, allowing it to keep track of time. Hoothoot is well known for its ability to keep rhythm by precisely tilting its head in time, much like a metronome. Everyday at exactly the same time, a Hoothoot will begin hooting. Hoothoot is most commonly found nesting in trees and forests.

A Hoothoot appeared in A Staravia is Born! where it teamed up with Ash's Starly to hypnotize Meowth to helping the other bird Pokémon escape. It is later seen flying away with the other bird Pokémon waving goodbye to Ash's newly evolved Staravia.

In the manga

In the Pokémon Adventures manga

Hoothoot debuted in The Legend when two were seen hanging under some tree branches when Green had finished her message to Silver in Johto.

In Murkrow Row a Hoothoot is seen flying at night while Gold was playing cue balls in his room, and again later when Gold asks Joey if he recorded the DJ Mary's song.

Hoothoot was used by a trickster in Who Gives a Hoothoot?. He claimed to use Hoothoot as an accurate timekeeper to regulate a prize-winning game he was hosting, when in fact he was prompting Hoothoot to declare the time limit whenever a participant was on the verge of winning, thus preventing anyone from winning his game. He was busted however, by Gold and his Aipom. The same man and his Hoothoot are seen in Really Raikou & Entirely Entei I and The Last Battle XIII.

Two Hoothoot were seen at night near the forest Gold was sleeping in, in Gilgar Glide.

Trivia

In Nintendo Power Vol. 134, Ken Sugimori stated in an interview that Hoothoot is his favorite Pokémon because he had a pet bird as a child that would stand on one foot.[1]

Origin

Hoothoot seems to be based on a combination of an owl—more specifically the Eagle Owl—and a clock, as its crest's prongs are shaped like the hands of a clock; in addition, it has the ability to keep track of time.

Name origin

Hoothoot is derived from hoot, an onomatopoeia for the sound an owl makes. It may also be a combination of hoot and cuckoo, as in a Cuckoo clock, referring to Hoothoot's keen ability to keep track of time.

Hoho is derived from hoo, another onomatopoeia for the sound an owl makes.